The Holy Bible – Knox Translation
The Holy Gospel of Jesus Christ According to John
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Chapter 8
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1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
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Jesus meanwhile went to the mount of Olives.
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And at early morning he appeared again in the temple; all the common folk came to him, and he sat down there and began to teach them.
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And now the scribes and Pharisees brought to him a woman who had been found committing adultery, and made her stand there in full view;
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Master, they said, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
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Moses, in his law, prescribed that such persons should be stoned to death; what of thee? What is thy sentence?
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They said this to put him to the test, hoping to find a charge to bring against him. But Jesus bent down, and began writing on the ground with his finger.
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When he found that they continued to question him, he looked up and said to them, Whichever of you is free from sin shall cast the first stone at her.
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Then he bent down again, and went on writing on the ground.
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And they began to go out one by one, beginning with the eldest, till Jesus was left alone with the woman, still standing in full view.
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Then Jesus looked up, and asked her, Woman, where are thy accusers? Has no one condemned thee?
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No one, Lord, she said. And Jesus said to her, I will not condemn thee either. Go, and do not sin again henceforward.

12
And now once more Jesus spoke to them, I am the light of the world, he said. He who follows me can never walk in darkness; he will possess the light which is life.
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Whereupon the Pharisees told him, Thou art testifying on thy own behalf, thy testimony is worth nothing.
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Jesus answered them, My testimony is trustworthy, even when I testify on my own behalf; I know whence I have come, and where I am going; you do not know whence I have come, you do not know where I am going.
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You set yourselves up to judge, after your earthly fashion; I do not set myself up to judge anybody.
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And what if I should judge? My judgement is judgement indeed; it is not I alone, my Father who sent me is with me.
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Just so it is prescribed in your law, The testimony of two men is trustworthy;
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well, one is myself, testifying in my own behalf, and my Father who sent me testifies in my behalf too.
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Hereupon they said to him, Where is this Father of thine? And Jesus answered, You have no knowledge, either of me or of my Father; had you knowledge of me, you would have knowledge of my Father as well.
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All this Jesus said at the Treasury, while he was teaching in the temple; and no one seized him, because his time had not yet come.

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And he said to them again, I am going away, and you will look for me, but you will have to die with your sins upon you; where I am going is where you cannot come.
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At this, the Jews began to ask, Will he kill himself? Is that what he means by, Where I am going is where you cannot come?
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But he went on to say, You belong to earth, I to heaven; you to this world, I to another.
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That is why I have been telling you that you will die with your sins upon you; you will die with your sins upon you unless you come to believe that it is myself you look for.
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Who art thou, then? they asked. Jesus said to them, What, that I should be speaking to you at all?
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There is much I could say of you, many judgements I could pass on you; but what I tell the world is only what I have learned from him who sent me, because he cannot deceive.
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And they could not understand that he was calling God his Father.
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Then Jesus said to them, When you have lifted up the Son of Man, you will recognize that it is myself you look for, and that I do not do anything on my own authority, but speak as my Father has instructed me to speak.
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And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me all alone, since what I do is always what pleases him.
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While he spoke thus, many of the Jews learned to believe in him.

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And now Jesus said to those among the Jews who believed in him, If you continue faithful to my word, you are my disciples in earnest;
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so you will come to know the truth, and the truth will set you free.
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They answered him, We are of Abraham’s breed, nobody ever enslaved us yet; what dost thou mean by saying, You shall become free?
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And Jesus answered them, Believe me when I tell you this; everyone who acts sinfully is the slave of sin,
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and the slave cannot make his home in the house for ever. To make his home in the house for ever, is for the Son.
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Why then, if it is the Son who makes you free men, you will have freedom in earnest.
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Yes, I know you are of Abraham’s breed; yet you design to kill me, because my word does not find any place in you.
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My words are what I have learned in the house of my Father, and your actions, it seems, are what you have learned in the school of your father.
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Our father? they answered him; Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, If you are Abraham’s true children, it is for you to follow Abraham’s example;
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as it is, you are designing to kill me, who tell you the truth as I have heard it from God; this was not Abraham’s way.
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No, it is your father’s example you follow. And now they said to him, We are no bastard children; God, and he only, is the Father we recognize.
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Jesus told them, If you were children of God, you would welcome me gladly; it was from God I took my origin, from him I have come. I did not come on my own errand, it was he who sent me.
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Why is it that you cannot understand the language I talk? It is because you have no ear for the message I bring.
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You belong to your father, that is, the devil, and are eager to gratify the appetites which are your father’s. He, from the first, was a murderer; and as for truth, he has never taken his stand upon that; there is no truth in him. When he utters falsehood, he is only uttering what is natural to him; he is all false, and it was he who gave falsehood its birth.
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And if you do not believe me, it is precisely because I am speaking the truth.
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Can any of you convict me of sin? If not, why is it that you do not believe me when I tell you the truth?
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The man who belongs to God listens to God’s words; it is because you do not belong to God that you will not listen to me.

48
Hereupon the Jews answered him, We are right, surely, in saying that thou art a Samaritan, and art possessed?
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I am not possessed, Jesus answered; it is because I reverence my Father that you have no reverence for me.
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Not that I am looking to my own reputation; there is another who will look to it, and be the judge.

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Believe me when I tell you this; if a man is true to my word, to all eternity he will never see death.
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And the Jews said to him, Now we are certain that thou art possessed. What of Abraham and the prophets? They are dead; and thou sayest that a man will never taste death to all eternity, if he is true to thy word.
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Art thou greater than our father Abraham? He is dead, and the prophets are dead. What dost thou claim to be?
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If I should speak in my own honour, Jesus answered, such honour goes for nothing. Honour must come to me from my Father, from him whom you claim as your God;
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although you cannot recognize him. But I have knowledge of him; if I should say I have not, I should be what you are, a liar. Yes, I have knowledge of him, and I am true to his word.
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As for your father Abraham, his heart was proud to see the day of my coming; he saw, and rejoiced to see it.
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Then the Jews asked him, Hast thou seen Abraham, thou, who art not yet fifty years old?
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And Jesus said to them, Believe me, before ever Abraham came to be, I am.
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Whereupon they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.